Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1887-07-28
"X" and the "G. A. R."

Ed. Register-There is no truth NOR
patent to the thinking man than tha
the existence of class, caste or organ
ization, arrogating to itself specia
rights, special privileges, and specia
exemptions from duty, things othe
and different from those enjoyed b,
the mass of citizens. is a menace t
American institutions, will gradual,
bring about decay of patriotic senti
ment, the erection of caste over ant
above country, membership over citi
zenship, the elevation of their owl
bylaws and constitutions above thos
of state and nation, and arrays the self
seeking of organization against tn,
duty of its members as citizens, anC
fronts ip hostile array the equal rights
of other citizens, and the duties of the
delegated agents of those citizens.
1t is a truth that such class organic
alton for exclusive caste benefit is un.
American. and unsafe in principle. in
a country whose government is based
upon the. absence of caste distinctions,
rights, and duties, whether such organ
izations be deDominated oil trusts, coke
syndicates, coal pools, corners in wheat,
consolidating competing railroads, land
grabs or Grand Armies of the Repub-
lic.
That these were dangers fully known,
understood and appreciated by the pa
triots, the philosophic students of his
tory among our early statesmen, the
trainers of our polity. and that they
sought to indelibly stamp this truth
upon the fabric and framework, to
weave it into the warp and woof of our
institutions, and pass it down to pos
terity for the guidance of remote gener-
ations of their successors as u maxim
of statescraft, and which is repeatedly
shown in the constitution, is an asser-
ton SO axiomatic,a a truth so self-evident
as not to call for any demonstration to
those who have the intelligence and
the patriotism requisite for the make
up of good American citizen.
This truth was SO firmly adopted by
the masses, of both high and low de-
gree, among our heroic Fathers, that
when an organization was formed or
proposed, admission to which required
as perquisite that the candidate
should have borne arms in the War of
Independence, such protest went up
from the icy Penobscot to the banks of
the gentle Pedee, from Hatteras to the
frontier villages of Kentucky, from
former soldiers as well as civilians,
that the idea was abandoned, and the
was dissolved; nor did the
FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY entirely es-
cape criticism when it was thought he
had given in his adhesion to the organ
ization, and he felt called upon to pub
licly declare it to be una mericau. The !
men who pledged "our lives. our for
tunes, and our sacred honors" to the
lifting the heel of foreign oppression
from the necks of their countrymen,
frowncd down an organization which |
might have degenerated into a domes-
tic and self seeking faction. And their
wisdom and patriotism has been DEM
onstrated at recent day, in America,
and by result of similar organiza-
Lion.
The existence of such an organization :
and the possibility of its acts and utter
ances demonstrating the patriotism
and wisdom of an earlier age, shows
hat change has come over the spirit
If my conntrymen, change which, If,
carried forward, gives no warrant of the
stability of present institu-
ions. And the shades of the mighty
past must roam unrestful that place of
labitatlon after death.
To see how their work is verging to
,oughti to see how the stately edifice,